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houstonag wrote: Thanks! You're not missing anything. I can't make this up. He told me the reason I was being arrested was because my truck was unsafe to drive and put other people at risk. So he arrested me and impounded my truck. It costed more to get my truck out of the impound lot than it did to bail myself out.

That sounds about right. I can completely believe it going down like that. Like I said, strange things happen, and while they eventually wash off, the do leave scars.

Fortunately, a class "C" is not going to disqualify you. It may not even create enough hassle to require all the paperwork for DPS, but I suspect that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have it on hand, put it in the files/safe just in case you ever need it again.

I've seen silly things come up for people over the years that were supposed to "go away" but didn't, and then when they have to dig up records from 10-20-30 years ago, it's almost impossible to find them. I now know that my little incident never generated any official paper, but I only know that from having to check into it.

GlassG19 wrote: You apparently don't live there anymore though? WOW!

No, I don't, but my mother, aunt and uncle do, and I still have property there. I'll likely be moving back, at least on a "second home" basis in the next couple of years.

Things have been cleaned up. It's not perfect, no small town is, but it's a decent place to live and be again.

That incident, while not truly "isolated" because many were involved, was part of a unique and temporary situation. D magazine did a write-up on the town back in about 2003. The accusations and allegations in their article were disturbing, but true in fact, despite some spin. I and several others were caught in the crossfire.

It's probably worth noting that in those days I was driving a black Thunderbird with some "engine improvements," and window tint that was barely legal. I had a tendency to draw the eye of LEO wherever I went, and the visual shock of who was driving that car was obvious on more than one occasion. The car just had the "look" of thug-life, even though a well dressed, well groomed professional stepped out of it.

That was my last "visible" car...I now tend to stick to plain white pickup trucks, and they seem to be virtually invisible in Texas.

Jimmy Buffet said it well...You don't want to go to jail.

GlassG19 wrote:

Nuts wrote:I thought mine was bad.

I was thrown in jail for throwing a cigarette out my window when it was raining.

I'm still speechless,, I don't know what to say. Where do y'all live? In Singapore or??? I've never in my life heard of?? I don't know...

Well, mine happened in a small town in northern Ellis County. And I openly admit there were some "words" exchanged . . . and some small town politics . . . and (allegedly) a wager between some reserve officers as to who could make the most arrests in a month.

That same week a small town newspaper man was arrested for having the cargo light on his Ford Ranger illuminated while in forward motion (Ford cargo lights come on when the dome light is on.)

Weird things happen. They're not the norm, even in politically charged small towns, but they do happen, and sometimes they leave stains.

And trust me, if you're the subject of one of those incidents, it leaves you scratching your head and asking what just happened, and how it can happen here. And makes you grateful that it isn't the norm, and that in the long-run the "system" will clean itself up usually.

Class "C" does not disqualify.

I can't imagine being hauled in over a tint ticket; but then, I would have never imagined being hauled in over a tail light out either...and I was once upon a time.

Although in my case it was exactly as suggested earlier: declined a search request in contempt of cop, and was subsequently searched incident to arrest.

I was, however simply cuffed, stuffed, and taken to the station, where I signed my ticket and was then released.

And as suggested before, that officer no longer has a job--at least not with the department he was with at the time.

As for getting the disposition, since you were "booked" I would go ahead and have it on hand, but if you're sure the charge was simply window tint/Class-C, I wouldn't let that hold up the application process. Submit, describe, and order the copies in case they ask for them.